Research Notes

Plagiarism - To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own.

Credible - Trustworthy or reliable.

Cartoon used under Creative Commons from BLAUGH.com

Source - The original source of obtained information: usually a website, a news article, an essay, a documentary, etc.

Search engine - A computer program that searches for specific words and returns a list of documents in which they were found.

A search engine is like a library. It is used to find sources/documents.

Primary source - First-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic.

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS: Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, official records

CREATIVE WORKS: Poetry, drama, novels, music, art Examples:

Diary of Anne Frank - Experiences of a Jewish family during WWII

The Constitution of the United States - US History A journal article reporting NEW research or findings

Secondary source - An interpretation or analysis of original documents. It is one or more steps removed from the event.

Examples:A journal/magazine article which

interprets or reviews previous findings A history textbook A book about the effects of WWI

Quoting - Using a phrase or passage word-for-word from another source.

Paraphrasing - Rephrase and simplify: to restate something using your own words.

Summarizing - A shortened version of something that has been said or written: contains only the main points.

Synthesizing - To combine various ideas, influences, or thoughts into new whole.

Experiences

Advice from others

Researched

information

MLA = Modern Language Association

Times New Roman12 point typeBlack printOne inch marginsDouble SpacedIndent new paragraphs

MLA Formatting

Top right corner in the header: last name and page #

Left side of the page in the body of the paper: First and last nameName of teacherName of classDate

Center and capitalize the title

MLA Formatting

The last page of the paper.

Citations should be listed alphabetically by author’s last name.

Indent all lines after the first line.

Works Cited Page